PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Fourteen fewer students are attending SAD 1 schools compared to the 2020-2021 school year, according to Superintendent Ben Greenlaw.
Greenlaw discussed the most recent enrollment numbers with school board members during their regular meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 20. Overall, the total student population saw a .8 percent decrease, meaning that there are 1,675 students district wide compared with 1,689 the previous year.
Presque Isle High School saw the sharpest decrease — from 480 to 462 students — while Mapleton Elementary School saw the largest increase — 210 to 218. Presque Isle Middle School, Zippel Elementary and Pine Street Elementary have a total of 382, 250 and 244 students, respectively.
Nearly all schools have seen gradual decreases in student population throughout the past decade. According to SAD 1 data, the 2008-2009 school year recorded 2,079 students across the district, but total enrollment has not surpassed 2,000 since then.
Greenlaw noted concern about the number of homeschooled students within the district, which has increased from 90 to 96. Prior to the pandemic, there were 65 homeschooled students living in the SAD 1 district. Those are numbers that Greenlaw and the district attribute to pandemic-related concerns.
“We don’t know if that will change after this year, but hopefully we’ll start to see some of those students come back [to in-person learning],” Greenlaw said, about homeschooled students.
In other business, Greenlaw updated the board on the district’s COVID-19 situation. Since high school students returned from harvest break Oct. 12, there has only been one positive case. There are currently two cases connected with Zippel Elementary, according to the district’s COVID dashboard.
Thanks to the district’s masking and social distancing policies and vaccination rates among students and staff, Greenlaw noted, only two individuals from the high school and six from Zippel have been required to quarantine.
Since reopening the high school in mid-August and the other schools in early September, SAD 1 has recorded over 30 cases of COVID, resulting in over 400 close contacts who have quarantined at various times.
Thus far the district has begun weekly pool testing at Mapleton Elementary and Zippel and have not seen positive cases. The district will begin pool testing at Pine Street, Presque Isle Middle School and Presque Isle High School in the coming weeks.
If the Pfizer vaccine is approved for children ages five to 11 by both the Food and Drug Administration and the the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention in early November, Greenlaw said that SAD 1 will begin the process of setting up school-based clinics.
“We plan to work with [Northern Light] AR Gould to support parents who want their children vaccinated,” Greenlaw said.
In the meantime, supporting students who must quarantine continues to be a concern for parents within the district.
During the board meeting’s public comment period, Chelsea Holmes, a mother of four children in SAD 1 schools, spoke about issues related to quarantines and remote learning that she and other parents believe have occurred.
This year SAD 1 has not offered remote learning as an official option for students, citing the social benefits of in-person learning and the additional workloads for teachers. But Holmes claimed that there has been a “gross miscommunication” between many teachers and parents over expectations for students in quarantine.
Holmes acknowledged the additional burdens that the pandemic has placed on teachers, but suggested that the district ensure that students in quarantine have equal chances of staying caught up with classroom work.
“Learning packets are given at the teacher’s discretion and the current [remote learning] policy does not allow students to log in and see a teacher’s lecture,” Holmes said. “I’m asking you to use monetary funds [for COVID relief] to create a plan with clearly defined roles for teachers and parents.”
Greenlaw and the school board did not respond to Holmes’ comments, but accepted copies of her written proposal for remote learning policies and thanked her for voicing concerns. No other individuals spoke during the public comment period.
The next SAD 1 school board meeting will be held Wednesday, Nov. 17 at 5:30 p.m. in the Presque Isle High School cafeteria.
